This book maps and discusses the increasing internationalisation of teaching and learning at universities around the world. This phenomenon brings both opportunities and challenges, introducing what can be radically different teaching, learning and assessment contexts.

The ability to recognise and understand your own cultural context is a prerequisite to understanding and interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds. An intercultural learning approach encourages us to develop an understanding of culture and cultural difference, through reflecting on our own context and experience.

Teaching Cross-Culturally is a challenging consideration of what it means to be a Christian educator in a culture other than your own. Chapters include discussions about how to uncover cultural biases, how to address intelligence and learning styles, and teaching for biblical transformation. Teaching Cross-Culturally is ideal for the western-trained educator or missionary who plans to work in a non-western setting, as well as for those who teach in an increasingly multicultural North America.

Teaching International Students explores the challenges presented to lecturer and student alike by increased cultural diversity within universities. Packed with practical advice from experienced practitioners and underpinned by reference to pedagogic theory throughout, topics covered include: the issues arising from international students studying alongside ‘home’ students the nature of learning and teacher-student relationships curriculum and development of teaching skills multicultural group work postgraduate supervision the experience of the international student Teaching International Students is essential reading. It demonstrates how improved training for teachers and a better understanding of the international student can enhance the experience of both and, ultimately, provide more positive learning environments for international students in the higher education system.

International Student Education in Tertiary Settings addresses key issues in international student education programme design and implementation. It maps contemporary theories and practices in international students’ transcultural learning and engagement and showcases successful tertiary education programmes for international students in Australia, China, Japan, the USA and the UK. The book highlights the opportunities for engaging international students that are built into the various programmes, international students’ strategies for coping with various challenges of engagement with their educational programmes, and a range of factors that confound their engagement in academic and intercultural learning. The broad coverage of international education programmes in a variety of geographical, sociocultural and pedagogical settings enables the discussion about the complexity of contemporary international student education, shared challenges and productive ways of engaging international students in transcultural learning and the prospect of sustainable engagement. The principles and insights into programme design and implementation to engage international students will be useful for researchers and practitioners in international student education, academics tasked with teaching international students in their class, and administrators responsible for managing and providing services to international students.

Uncovering aspects of university culture which are often hidden or misunderstood, this book brings together international perspectives, showing the matches and mismatches between experience and expectation, as both staff and student face new academic cultures. Drawing on the stories of students and members of staff in the higher education sector as starting points for analysis, this book considers aspects such as the dynamics and pragmatics of university settings, from tutorial to lecture; the assignment and multiple text types from reflective logs to essays; different interpretations of grades, grading and feedback. Topics are explored with examples from critical incidents and narratives in international contexts – both where staff or students cross cultures and borders, and where they are functioning within the university culture with which they are most familiar. Ideal both for those new to learning and teaching in higher education, and those seeking to refresh their practice, this must-read book uses case studies and narratives to illustrate key challenges academics and students face. With consideration given to learning across cultures, the narratives and topics lead to enquiries which the reader can ask and research for themselves to find helpful answers to explain their own university experiences.

Winner of the BMW Group LIFE Award for Contribution to Intercultural Learning, 2007 The research student population of higher educational institutions continues to expand to include people from an ever-widening range of cultural and educational backgrounds. However, many research methods courses are still directed at the traditional student population. This book examines aspects of postgraduate research from a cross-cultural perspective, analysing the dilemmas faced by international students when defining a research question, choosing research methods, collecting data, deciding which language to use and writing their theses. Through an exploration of how international students re-examine their beliefs and research practices during their study in the UK, this book challenges the assumptions of all those engaged in educational research, addressing key questions such as: How do our teaching and learning experiences shape our approach to educational research? How do we judge ‘good’ educational research? What does it mean to be critical? The book uses the real-life experiences of international students to illuminate the kinds of challenges they may face. It supports both students and their supervisors, showing students how to approach cultural differences, and supervisors how to deal sensitively with the problems encountered by overseas students in their research.

This book presents strategies and practices for facilitating effective learning for mainland Chinese students in western based education – regarding e.g. the choice of instructional techniques, attention to students’ cultural dislocation aspects, comfort, familiarity, and ease of knowledge transfer. It embeds innovativeness at a conceptual level, and argues for a holistic and “engaged” approach to learning effectiveness for mainland Chinese students.

International Teaching and Learning at Universities investigates both the positive and the more problematic aspects of the internationalization of education. The flow of students to universities is no longer unidirectional from East to West but truly global with a diminishing difference between the two major educational centers. Slethaug and Vinther explain how liberal education, the movement of students across the globe, autonomy for students and teachers, and internationalization of education influence each other in constructing a new educational reality. These elements are vital to the continued development of learning, economic growth, and the democratic process of our societies in the East and West.

Transnational higher education (TNHE), where students study on a ‘foreign’ degree programme whilst remaining in their home country, has seen exponential development over the last decade. In addition to the increase in students engaged in TNHE across the globe, the involvement of university teachers in TNHE has also risen in response to the demand for this form of international education. Although research into transnational education has doubled since 2006, there is a paucity of research focusing on transnational teacher education, especially outside of North America. The global nature and scope of the expansion of TNHE remains underexplored, and the ways in which different countries are realising TNHE provision is little understood. This book explores the experiences and perceptions of teachers in transnational higher education, interrogating the ways in which university teachers negotiate cultural, linguistic, and disciplinary contexts in order to provide transformative learning experiences for their students. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education for Teaching.